Checkerwork



April 17, 1962 G. P. REINTJES CHECKERWORK 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed March21, 1960 INVENTOR. GEORGE P.RE|NTJ|-:s BY wim FIGJ April 17, 1962 ca. P.REINTJES 3,030,093

CHECKERWORK Filed March 21, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FlG.4

INVENTOR. GEO RGEP. R El NTJ ES MW-l United States Patent 3,030,093CHECKERWORK George P. Reintjes, 2517 Jetferson'St, Kansas (Iity, M0.Filed Mar. 21, 1960, Ser. No. 16,598 1 Claim. (Cl. 263-51) Thisinvention relates to a new and improved checkerwork brick andinstallation for furnaces. One of its chief objects is to produce acombination in which the superposed courses of refractory brick can bebonded and interlocked against relative rotation or twisting whichfrequently leads to the misalignment of the passageways through thecheckerwork and a consequent decrease in its heat absorbing capacity.

Another object of the invention is to produce brick for checkerworkwhich are so formed that they will uniformly interlock or bond eventhough the through openings at the top of the checkerwork may be largerthan those toward the lower end, as it is sometimes desirable to erect acheckerwork in which the cross-sectional area of the passageways orfiues at the lower portion of the tower is smaller than at the top sothat the velocity of the air passing therethrough will be relativelyconstant even though the temperature and volume at the top of the toweris three or four times that at the bottom or lower end of the tower.

With the general objects named in view and others as will hereinafterappear the invention consists in certain new and useful features ofconstruction and organization of parts as hereinafter described andclaimed; and in order that it may be fully understood, reference is tobe had to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a fragmental perspective view of a plurality of courses ofrectangular brick embodying the invention, the brick of superposedcourses being turned at right angles so that the courses are bonded orinterlocked against rotation or twisting out of alinement.

FIGURE 2 is a broken perspective view of one of the brick shown inFIGURE 1.

FlGURE 3 is a fragmental perspective view of a plurality of courses ofrectangular brick embodying the invention, said brick being formed withedge and corner notches.

FIGURE 4 is a perspective view of one of the brick shown in FIGURE 3.

In the said drawings, where like reference characters identifycorresponding parts in all of the figures, two types of brick are shownby way of illustration, identified as 1 and 2, each being of generallyrectangular shape and of preferred material for heat exchange use. Thebrick l are simpler in configuration than the brick 2 said brick 1 beingrectangular and being formed with two or more through passageways 3,said passageways being of desired diameter in relation to the area ofthe brick, so that each central opening 3, in the preferredconstruction, will be centered within an annular groove 4 and rib 5respectively on opposite sides of the brick. By preference, the brickmay be made with through openings 3 of varying diameters so that theycan be used near the top or bottom of a checkerwork chamber, but in allcases the placement of the grooves 4 and ribs 5 and ICC the grooves 9and ribs 10 will be constant so that adjacent courses of brick may bebonded or interlocked regardless of the diameter of their throughopenings.

In the installation of checkerwork it has been found that if the brickare laid up in continuous alined vertical columns, they will, in time,tend to twist or rotate out of alinement. In order to overcome thismisalignment which interferes with the flow of air, it is preferred tobond or interlock superposed brick by turning the brick courses at toeach other at various elevations. With this arrangement the interlockinggrooves and ribs will bond the brick courses against rotation ortwisting which misaligns the through passageways and interferes with orobstructs air flow.

The brick 2, in addition to having the spaced through passageways 6, areprovided with notches 7 midway their long sides and the four corners arerounded out at 90 as shown at 8, so that these brick may be laid up incourses arranged at right angles and the edge and corner notches willmatch with over and underlying similar notches or passageways. In thisconstruction the opposite faces of the brick are respectively formedwith annular recesses or grooves 9 and ribs 10 so that adjacent brickcourses may be bonded against rotation or twisting and misalignment ofthe air passageways.

It will be evident that with the round air passageways thus provided,the circulation is not impeded as by local eddy current in dead aircorners as occurs with square or rectangular fiues or passageways, andthat the tines may be readily and efficiently cleaned with brushes orotherwise. From the above description and drawings, it will be apparentthat I have produced a construction embodying all of the features ofadvantage set forth as desirable, and while I have described andillustrated the preferred construction it is to be understood that Ireserve the right to all changes Within the spirit and scope of theappended claim.

I claim:

A checkerwork brick of rectangular form having a pair of opposite endfaces, a pair of opposite side faces, and upper and lower faces, theupper and lower faces being penetrated by a pair of parallel throughopenings, the four corners of the brick having 90 circular cornernotches extending from the upper to the lower faces of the brick, andeach of the two side faces of the brick having at its midpoint a 180circular notch paralleling the corner notches, and the upper and lowerfaces of the brick being respectively formed with ribs and groovessurrounding the center openings and edge and corner notches and equallyspaced away from the peripheries of the through openings and edge andcorner notches.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,804,393 Aubel et al. May 12, 1931 2,044,090 MacDonald June 16, 19362,651,515 Agnew et al. Sept. 8, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 513,491 France Nov.3, 1920 680,458 France Ian. 18, 1 930

